Extensive views on the ridgeline between Mt. Hood and Badger Creek Wilderness

Mt. Hood

Little stands between you and the east side of Mt. Hood when hiking along this ridge top trail, which offers views of the Cascades from Three Sisters to Mt. Rainier. In fact, the only thing obscuring your view along this trail are trees that occasionally give way to scattered rock outcroppings, which afford grand views of a broad spectrum of Cascade peaks.

Is there any such thing as "the perfect vacation?" (Part 1)

Oregon's Waldo Lake from the South shoreline


I should have known before I left the house at the end of June my vacation was probably doomed. Making my final preparations to head out into the wilds of the Oregon Cascades, I locked my office door (a studio office located in my backyard) from the inside without knowing where the key was hiding. I searched high and low for that key inside my house, but it was nowhere to be found. Figuring it was locked in my desk drawer inside the office, I loaded my backpack and suit and a few other items and headed down the road. I knew a locksmith would have to visit my office before I would get in again.